NEW YORK - (Mealey's) More than 10,000 of the claimants eligible to participate in the World Trade Center Disaster Site settlement process in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York have chosen to opt in, according to an announcement posted Nov. 19 by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein (In re: World Trade Center Disaster Site Litigation, No. 21-100 [consolidated], S.D. N.Y.).

The plaintiffs are first responders and workers who helped clear the rubble left from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.

Judge Hellerstein approved the settlement process agreement on June 23 based on an agreement to settle the claims against New York City and its contractors. Including subsequent settlements, the fund for the claims is more than $720 million.

According to Garretson, 87.4 percent of the 2,726 so-called Tier 1 plaintiffs filed documents by the deadline. Tier 1 plaintiffs have no manifest injury.

Some 96.8 percent of the 1,619 eligible Tier 2 plaintiffs filed documents, according to Garretson. Tier 2 plaintiffs have a qualifying disease and a medical diagnosis of the disease.

The total number of eligible plaintiffs is 10,563, according to Garretson.

[Editor's Note: Full coverage will be in the Dec. 7 issue of Mealey's Emerging Toxic Torts. In the meantime, the notice is available at www.mealeysonline.comor by calling the Customer Support Department at 1-800-833-9844. Document #15-101207-039B. For all of your legal news needs, please visit www.lexisnexis.com/mealeys.]